Safety rotary well-boring tool.



c. E. L M.y Hg. WHITTIER. SAFETY ROTARY WELL BORING TOOL.

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ed Feb. 20, 1917.

Patent Ifzaelzzfony:

-oZa/' wml v Mexican* APPLICATION FILED AUG 24 1915 fwd@ UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. 'i

COLAN F. WHITTIER AND MERICOS H. WHITTIER, 0F LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

SAFETY ROTARY WELL-BORING Toor..

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 20, 1917.

Appli-cation led August 24,` 1915. Serial No. 47,130.

To all whom t may concern.' Be it known that we, CoLAN F. WHIT'riER and Mnnroos H. WHITTIER, both citizens of the United States, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented a new and useful Safety Rotary Well-Boring Tool, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to that'class of rotary well drilling tools in which the bit or l cutting tool is secured by a screw-threaded joint to a tubular stock or pipe that serves the plural purpose of lowering, rotating and raising the bit and also of conduct-ing water thereto for the purpose of washing out the borings; said water being delivered through the bit to the bottom of the hole.

A difliculty which arises in the use of well-boring tools heretofore made is, that in lowering the tool into the hole the bit is likely to strike upon the side of the hole in such a manner as to cause the bit torotate sufliciently to unscrew and become detached, thus allowing the bit to drop to the bottom of the hole, or to lodge crosswise therein and cause great delay and expense.

An object of this invention is to avoid all danger of the bit being thus lost in the hole and to insure its immediate recovery upon withdrawing the pipe onto which it had been screwed.

A further objectv of the invention is to make 'provision for convenient assembling and disassembling of the apparatus and for convenient installation of the same.

The invention can be carried out in various ways; and Iincludes a construction adapted to enable the driller to reconnect the detached bit to the tool joint, without withdrawing the tool from the hole.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the .invention installed in a manner that 1ncludes two forms which may be employed together or separately as may be deemed desirable.

Figure 1 is an elevation, partly in axial section, of a safety rotary boring tool constructed in accordance with this invention applied with duplex retrieving means.

Fig. 2 is an'enlarged axial section of the tool corresponding to the tool shown in Fig. 1, the section being taken at a plane at right angles to that of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a cross Section onlme 3-w5, Fig. 1 and 004-4113, Fig. 2. looking up.

Fig. 4 is a planview in section on line mL-a, Fig. 2, looking down.

Fig. 5 is a fragmental view showing the invention applied without the line attach-y ment.

The tubular rotary stock 1 may be of any usual construct-ion, being made of sections joined together by threaded collars 2. Said stock is provided at an appropriate place with an emergency bit support 3, the same being an externally threaded member having perforations 4, 5, therethrough and screwed into a section of the stock having an internally threaded portion as at 6 to receive the same; the smaller perforations 4 of the support being for the purpose of allowing liquid to pass through the support and arranged in a circle surrounding the larger central orifice 5, which may also allow liquid to pass therethrough, but is mainly for the purpose of constituting a way through which a connection in the form of a connecting rod 7 may reciprocate. Said rod 7 is provided with means to-engage the\ support, the same being a projection in the i for liquid and the tool joint 10y ishollow, so

that a free passage is afforded by the stock, the perforations 4 in the support, and the ways 11 in the bit; so that liquid can be passed through the apparatus from the top -of the hole to the bottom thereof to furnish the hydraulic means to remove the borings from the bottom of the hole as the tool is rotated or otherwise worked in the course of drilling usual with rotary hydraulicdrilling apparatus. The upper externally threaded end of the bit 9 is provided with a centrally-located threaded vsocket 12, and the connecting rod 7 is threaded at its lower end and screwed into said threaded socket.

The apparatus can be assembled from an entirely dismantled condition by first inserting the connecting rod 7 through the central perforation or orifice 5, then inserting the head of the connecting rod into the hollow stock 1 and screwing the support 3 home in the screw-threaded seat 6 at the end of said stock; then screwingv the tool joint 10 on the bit 9; then screwing the connecting rod 7 tight into the socket 12 in the tool 9, and then screwing the tool joint 10 firmly home on the stock 1. The operation of screwing the rod 7 int the tool 9 can be` performed for the reason that saidl rod 7 is of somewhat greater length than the combined lengths of the support or bridge 3, the space from said bridge to the end of the stock, and the space from the end of the stock to the bottom of the socket 12 when the apparatus is assembled, so that when the rod 7 is drawn out to project from the stock 1 after the bridge has been inserted, it will project Asuflicier'itly far to allow it to -be handled by a wrench or other tool, not shown, applied between the lower end of the stock 1 and the upper end of the tool joint 10 to hold or to turn the connecting rod 7 while said rod and bit are being relatively rotated to screw the con` nection 7 into the socket 12 while the tool joint 10 is unscrewed from the stock. After the connecting rod 7 has been fully screwed home into the socket 12, then the tooljoint with the bit attached thereto may be screwed firmly home on the stock. It is thus seen that when the tool is assembled as just described, the connection including the pro jection or head 8 and the connecting rod 7 are in position to han up the bit 9 on the support 4 in case said it should become detached from the stock 1; and in this way al1 danger of losing the bit in the hole is avoided, for the reason that as soon as the bit becomes 4unscrewed from the stock the unusual actibn of the drilling apparatusy would notify the driller, so that he could give the required attention, pull the stock from the hole and recover the bit, which can be again screwed home on the stocky and the drilling operation proceeded with without any shing job.

Tt is important in order to assemble the apparatus conveniently that the connection shall have sufficient longitudinal movement relative to the stock to allow the tool to be separated from the stock a suflicient distance to allow the connection to be engaged by a wrench or other tool to hold the same to allow the tool to be connected to and disconnected from such connection. This is effected by making the rod of a length considerably greater than they distance between the top of the support and the bottom of the socket therefor in the tool when the tool is connected to the stock, thus allowing an open space between the tool and the end of the stock' to admit the wrenchor other tool connection for the purpose of-holding the ammore same while the tool is beingv connected thereto.

Tt may be at times deemed desirable to connect a line such asl the steel cable 13 to the connection 7 8; and for this purpose we have shown a hollow socket 111 having at one end a-tubular neck 15 and at the other end an internally threaded portion 16 forming an intermediate chamber 17. Said socket .is connected to the line by inserting the line 13 through the hollow neck 15 and Spreading the ends of the line and securing them by Babbitt metal 18 poured thereinto while melted and then allowed to cool, as is usual in fastening steel cables in sockets. The chamber 17 is of somewhat larger diameter than the head or projectionl S, so that said head may move freely along and rotate in the chamber 17 A retainer 19 having an inward projection 20 is screwed`\ into the threaded portion 16 of the socket 14: and is provided with a central way 21 for the connection 7 below the head 8. Said retainer is preferably a cylindrical lhollow member, partly closed at one end as indicated at 19, 20 and 21, Figs. 1 and 2.

We will now describe the method of assembling the tool when constructed with the line-attaching means, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. While theemergency bit support 3 is yet detached, the line having been previously fastened in its socket 14, will be passed through the stock 1 and the socket will be allowed to extend from the end of the stock to receive the retainer 19. Then the body of the connecting rod 7 will be inserted through the opening 21 in the retaining device, and said retaining device -will'be screwed home on the socket. Then the connecting rod will be inserted through -nected with the stock, though loosely, and

the change in the operation of the tool will notify the driller thatthe bit is out of place. Then the stock may be drawn out of the hole as above suggested and the tool replaced and made ready for operation.

In case the socket 14 with line 13 is used as shown the same affords a further means for drawing the tool out of the hole, so that power may be applied to both the stock and the line or to either as the judgment or con venience of the attendant may dictate.

Tt is anticipated that the socket 14 and its accessories will seldom be installed for this 13o purpose as it is not probable the exigencies of the case will often require the same.

The socket 14 is provided with holes 24: to allow the escape of any clogging material that might accumulate above the head 8 in the socket. The head 8 and retainer 20 are constructed to interlock, there beingstops 22 to engage seats 23 so that when the socket is drawn up by the line 13 the seats 23 in the top side of the retainer 20 will receive the stops 22 on the under side of the head to prevent relative rotation of the socket 14 and connection 7. By this arrangement the detached bit may be rotated by rotating the line 13 to screw the bit into the tool oint. The direction of the screw threads and the twist of the cable is such as to allow the force to bel thus applied.

We claim:

1.4 A hollow stock, a socket, a line attached tothe socket and extending through the stock; a tool adapted Jfor connection to the stock; a connection adapted to be connected to the tool and extending into the socket; means to retain the connection in the socket; said socket being adapted for rotary and longitudinal movement relative to the connection and said connection having longitudinal movement relative to the stock to allow the tool lto be separated from the stock a sutlicient distance to allow the connection to be engaged by a tool to hold the same to allow the tool to 'be connected to and disconnected from such connection; and means to prevent relative rotation of the socket and connection when the tool is suspended from the socket by the connection.

2. A hollow stock, a socket loose in the stock, a line attached to the socket and eX- tending through the stock and beyond; a tool screwed to the lower end of the stock, a connecting rod loosely swiveled to the socket and attached to the tool; and a stop below the socket.

In testimony whereof, we have hereunto set our hands at Los Angeles, California, this 19th day of August, 1915.

In presence ofn JAMES R. TowNsEND. 

